They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but when it comes to protective filters for lenses, it may not be such a good thing. A photographer thought he scored a good deal but was not amused when he found out his newly bought 77mm Nikon NC filter was far from authentic.

The difference was quite apparent when he compared it with an original filter sold by an authorized Nikon dealer. Some giveaways that your filter is a counterfeit include a Nikon logo and inscriptions that are less vibrant; duller colors on the packaging; and, the most obvious--an instruction manual looks like it was printed on a cheap printer.

The author discovered that the original filter is slightly thinner than the counterfeit. And if one looks closely, even the label on the filter rim has slight discrepancies in terms of font color and spacing.

To prevent others from being scammed, 1KindPhotography has written a detailed tutorial on how to spot the real McCoy.